Social Venture Network honors Earthbound Farm founders

December 04, 2012

Myra and Drew Goodman, founders of Earthbound Farm, an organic industry leader, were recently inducted into the Social Venture Network’s hall of fame as Environmental Evangelists, with three other contemporary luminaries in the category. The honor was officially announced at a Nov. 13 ceremony at Gotham Hall in New York City.

The Social Venture Network hall of fame honorees are examples of what the national nonprofit calls the “most innovative and influential leaders of the socially responsible business movement.”

Drew and Myra Goodman, founders of Earthbound Farm.Other recipients of the Environmental Evangelist honor are Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield, George Siemon of Organic Valley and Jeffrey Hollender of Seventh Generation.

To win this award, nominees were rigorously vetted by a panel of 20 judges. Award winners needed to be innovative entrepreneurs who had created organizations with more than $50 million in annual revenue and positively affected the environment.

All told, 25 socially responsible business leaders were inducted into the SVN hall of fame in five categories. Other inductees included Eileen Fisher, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

“Drew and I are honored to be in the company of these accomplished business leaders, all of whom have set tremendous examples for how businesses can do well while doing good,” Myra Goodman said in a press release.

SVN was founded 25 years ago with the mission of cultivating entrepreneurs dedicated to profit with a purpose. The nonprofit is now a network of thousands of successful business leaders intent on positively changing the world through their businesses.

Earthbound Farm was founded by the Goodmans in 1984 and has evolved into a leading organic food company that, in 2012 alone, will keep more than 14 million pounds of synthetic fertilizers and toxic pesticides out of the environment, absorb the equivalent carbon dioxide of taking more than 9,200 cars off the road and keep 1.3 million pounds of plastic out of our landfills by using 100 percent recycled plastics for packaging.

Earthbound Farm’s role as an innovator in large-scale organic farming is also included in The Smithsonian Institution’s new exhibit: “Food: Transforming the American Table 1950 to 2000” at the American History Museum in Washington, DC, where a photograph of the spring mix harvester invented by Earthbound Farm partner Stan Pura of Mission Ranches is featured. The exhibit explores some of the major changes in food and wine in postwar America. From the effects of innovations and new technologies to the influence of social and cultural shifts, the exhibition considers how these factors helped transform food and its production, preparation and consumption, as well as what we know (or think we know) about what’s good for us. The Goodmans attended the exhibit’s opening night gala.